Ferrero Rocher Cake

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Impress your guests this holiday season! Take a classic holiday treat to the next level with this Ferrero Rocher Cake!

Can you believe it’s already November?? I honestly can’t. These past few months (and this year in general) have gone by crazy fast! They say time goes faster as you get older, and I didn’t really believe it until I got older.

It was my birthday this past week, and I celebrated entering the last year of my 30’s, which is crazy to me. Next year I’ll be 40. 40! What in the hell?! I’m not sure if I’ve quite come to terms with that.

Ryan insisted that I *needed* to have cake on my birthday seeing as how I’m a cake baker and all, and that it would be sacrilege not to. Would it shock you to know that cake is actually the last thing I wanted? On my actual birthday day, I wanted nothing to do with cakes or baking or blogging. I think this is a reasonable expectation. I wanted a break from my day-to-day. So for that actual day, I got my hair done, did some shopping, went out to a fabulous dinner, and had PIE for dessert (cue gasps). It was a damn good pie, too.

Alas, I could not let a birthday go by without baking an actual cake, this was true. So, for my birthday weekend festivities I pulled out all the stops for this Ferrero Rocher Cake!

Perhaps this is my way of jumping the gun a bit on holiday baking. I know you can technically get Ferrero’s year round, but to me they are a holiday treat. Maybe it’s because of the commercials they always bust out during the holiday season. And it’s kind of a tradition these days that my parents always get Ryan a box of Ferrero’s for Christmas. It’s really cute actually.

Despite my manyNutellarecipes, I’m actually not a huge fan of Nutella on its own. I used to eat it straight out of the jar with a spoon when I was younger, so maybe I just got sick of it. In a Ferrero though? Heaven.

With this Ferrero Rocher Cake, I wanted to make sure all the elements of a true Ferrero shone through. It is packed with chocolate and hazelnut flavour. There is hazelnut flour in the cake itself (optional, but it adds flavour and texture) and I added a layer of crunchy hazelnut meringue to emulate that crunchy shell that Ferrero’s have.

I initially planned to use feuilletine flakes to add the crunch, but I opted for something a little more elaborate and went with the meringue instead. The meringue will lose some of its crunch the longer it sits with the buttercream though, so you can choose to use the flakes instead if you have them on hand.

Now the rich Nutella buttercream is something I would happily eat with a spoon. It is SO good. A fluffier version of Nutella that pairs really well with the dense chocolate cake. The cake is fudgy and delicious. Paired with a smooth Nutella buttercream and crunchy chocolate hazelnut meringue, it’s really the best thing ever.

I may have gone a little heavy handed on the frosting between the layers, but I told you it was good!! You can’t totally see the hazelnut meringue layer, but I swear it’s there! And it’s delicious.

If you’re looking for something unique this holiday season, or really any time of year, this Ferrero Rocher Cake is sure to wow!

Notes & tips for this Ferrero Rocher Cake:

If you don’t have hazelnut flour on hand and/or don’t want to make any, you can just substitute in additional all-purpose flour.

To enhance the chocolate flavour of the cake, you can use strong hot coffee instead of hot water.

The hazelnut meringue will soften the longer it sits in the cake. Ideally serve same day. Regardless though, it will still taste delicious!

To help ensure your cake layers bake up nice and flat, see my Flat Top Cakes post.

Assembly:

INSTRUCTIONS

Hazelnut Cake:

Preheat oven to 350F, grease three 6" round baking pans and dust with cocoa powder. Line bottoms with parchment.

Place all dry ingredients into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Stir to combine.

In a medium bowl whisk all wet ingredients (pour hot water in slowly while whisking as not to cook the eggs).

Add wet ingredients to dry and mix on medium for 2-3 mins. Batter will be very thin.

Pour evenly into prepared pans. I used a kitchen scale to ensure the batter is evenly distributed.

Bake until a cake tester comes out mostly clean, a total of 30-35mins.

Nutella Buttercream:

Prepare a stand mixer with a whisk attachment and whip butter until creamy (2 mins).

In a medium bowl, whisk together sifted powdered sugar and cocoa powder.

Reduce speed to low and add in powdered sugar mixture 1 cup at a time until well blended. Scrape down sides of bowl and whisk as needed. Add in Nutella and whip on high for approximately 5 mins.

Hazelnut Meringue:

Preheat oven to 250F and line a 10x15" pan with parchment. Trace two 5" circles onto the parchment, flip over so the traced side is down.

Combine egg whites, salt, and cream of tartar in the bowl of a stand mixer**. Beat on high until soft peaks form. Slowly add sugar (1 Tbsp at a time) and beat until stiff peaks.

Dab a bit of meringue under the corners of the parchment to secure it. Fold chopped hazelnuts and cocoa powder into the meringue. Pipe into discs using the 5" circles as a guide. Pipe or spread remaining meringue in empty spaces on the parchment.

Bake for 90mins and cool on pan.

Assembly:

Place one layer of the cake onto a cake stand or serving plate. Top with 2/3 cup of buttercream and spread evenly. Place one meringue disc on top and top with additional buttercream if desired. Repeat with remaining layers and crumb coat the cake. Chill for 20mins. Frost the cake with the remaining buttercream, smooth the sides and chill for 20mins. Press chopped hazelnuts into the sides and top with rosettes if desired.

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The nutritional information and metric conversions are calculated automatically. I cannot guarantee the accuracy of this data. If this important to you, please verify with your favourite nutrition calculator and/or metric conversion tool.

Comments

I just made this for my hubby’s birthday…I had to trim the sponges because I didn’t have three identical tins which meant the frosting didn’t have a nice finish abut this afternoon I’ll cover it with a chocolate topping (choc/sugar/butter/milk melted) to hide the imperfections. All elements taste amazing so far. I did put some frosting to bind meringue and the next sponge layer. I used the coffee instead of hot water and also a little less sugar and it tasted amazing. Excited to cut it tonight!

Hi, I love all your beautiful cakes. And this one is very elegant. I am making a birthday cake for my grandson’s 20th birthday next month and he loves Nutella but I am wondering if you can make this cake with the Swiss Meringue Buttercream if so how much of the hazelnuts or Nutella would you add and when would you add it while mixing? I like the idea of the meringue in the middle of the layers would give a wonderful texture. So glad I came upon your blog I love to bake and just learning to really decorate cakes. Thank you for all the wonderful recipes will be trying many more. Seems I have a birthday every month for the next 4 months.

Hi Debbie! You can totally make this as a Swiss Meringue, but the frosting will be much lighter in color. I just made a Swiss meringue today, but with peanut butter. I made a large batch using 6 egg whites and used 3/4 cup of peanut butter. I would do the same for Nutella, but maybe start with 1/2 cup since it’s thinner than pb. Check the consistency and flavour before adding more. As for when to add it, I would add it at the end after the buttercream has come together. I hope that helps!!

This cakes looks yummy. It’s my birthday on the 20th January and I am going to be very adventurous by making this cake for my birthday.I love experimenting with baking and cooking. I’ve invited about 25 friends so will give feedback on the results.

What I love about this cake, besides the fact that it is absolutely gorgeous, is that there is not even one actual Ferrero Rocher candy on it! That makes it classsy, I’ve seen many versions of this cake with the candy on it, which I don’t understand, it’s like defining a word by using the same word in your definition. Your version is creative and artistic. I would like to have a bakery make this cake for me as I’m not a baker, and hopefully they get it right! Thanks for sharing your brilliance!

Thanks so much Latasha! That is one of the sweetest comments ever. I totally know what you mean — I didn’t want to put the ferrero’s *on* the cake, since I wanted it to be more classy, like you said. I hope you get to try it one way or another!! xo

Can’t wait to make this cake tomorrow for our Christmas potluck!
I’ve never made meringue before so I’m hoping it turns out!
Thanks for sharing this great recipe. Will be returning to your blog to make a bunch of your other cakes! They all look and sound so good! 🙂

Hello
LOVE this cake BUT need to make it in an 11inch square tin (for 50 people) for a 50th birthday party.
Do you think if I doubled the recipe, it would be enough? It’s doing my head in trying to figure it out. Any suggestions?
Lisa

Thanks for your prompt reply!!
I would still like to do the 3 layers but in a square 11 inch tin. I guess my friend is insisting on square for ease of cutting purposes for 50 people.
Anyway, if you could offer any help it would be really appreciated.
Lisa

Hi Lisa! I’m really not sure, to be honest. That’s quite an increase in size. Using the info from the link above I would do one full recipe PER layer. Even then your layers will be a bit thinner, but that’s the best I can recommend. Let me know how it turns out!

Hey Liv – every time I make this cake (and that’s at least 4 times now), the cake layers bake with a dip in the center, whether or not I use the soaked strips for flat top cakes. Any tips? I just tried doubling the recipe and making a 3-layer 8″ cake. They baked more slowly so I increased the temp to 375 and baked them longer, but got some pretty significant dips in the middle. I opened the oven once after 35 minutes to check on them. Both my baking soda and baking powder are relatively fresh, but maybe I shouldn’t have doubled those ingredients?

Hi JK! I’ve doubled this recipe before without issue. If your ingredients are fresh and you’re baking them for enough time, that is bizarre! Are they sinking while baking or once you take them out of the oven?

This recipe is awesome, I’ve recommended it to a whole bunch of my friends who enjoyed it.

The only thing I did differently is to give it a Brazilian twist. I made a brigadiero frosting (2 tbs of butter melted mixed with 3 heaping tbs of dutch press cocoa, and finally a can of condensed milk… cook it until it’s thick).

Just finished baking this cake for Father’s Day! We loved it and it was also my first time baking a cake. Just a question though on how thick the meringue was supposed to be? I can barely see it in your pictures so I’m not sure if I made mine correctly. It also caused my cake to not stick together because of it.

Hi Andrea! The meringue kinda gets lost in my layers due to the color :\ It’s not super thick though, like half an inch or so? Mostly there for texture. How do you mean it cause the cake not to stick together?

dont know if i made it too thick or maybe just not flat enough. It also turned out to be too crunchy so maybe I over baked it but i did set it at 250 for 90mins like stated. It’s been two days since ive baked it so like stated the crunch it gone but its better for us! I’ll try this again soon and hopefully it’ll turn out as nice as yours 🙂

I made the cake for my daughter’s graduation party and it turned out pretty nice! It was a double tiered cakes so I had to bake two 10″ cakes and two 8″ inch cakes. I ended up using the meringue in between the layers and even though it wasn’t churchy anymore, it still gave it some texture. I also added a bit of hazelnut pralines to add crunch. I had a bit of trouble with the frosting, it was too thick and hard to spread, but I never give up, so even though it took me two days to figure it out, I managed to cover the whole cake and hide some imperfections with decoration. The cake was a huge success – not only was it beautiful but also delicious! Thanks, Olivia, for your support and your creative ideas!

Hello Olivia, I just stumbled upon your gorgeous recipes while looking for a chocolate cake recipe for my daughter’s graduation. This is delicious-looking Ferrero Rocher cake the winner! My question is – on the photo it seems there are tiny bits of nuts in the batter? What are those? Hazelnut pieces maybe? But when I read the recipe, there are no hazelnut pieces in the cake and you state that the hazelnut flour should be finely ground. I’d love to have some of those crispy looking nuts in there, so pease let me know how to do that. Thank you!

Hi Krisz! The nuts in the cake are due to the hazelnut flour. I guess I didn’t get mine perfectly fine! Or at least not all of it 🙂 They weren’t really crunchy though, but the meringue layer helped with that 🙂 I hope you like this one!

Olivia, thank you for answering my question. You mention that the meringue will lose its crunch with time. I was planning to make this cake on Friday and serve it on Sunday. So I bet the meringue’s crunch will be completely gone. Do yon still recommend I do it with meringue? Also, will the cake still taste good if I make it two days ahead of time?

I think the crunch would be gone by then, yeah 🙁 It might be more chewy by that point, so it would still add a bit of texture. It’s totally optional. The cake would be just as delicious without it! If you do decide to pass on the meringue layer, you can always sprinkle some chopped hazelnuts between the layers instead 🙂

The cake will be fine 2 days ahead of time. Just keep it in the fridge and bring to room temperature (2-3 hours) before serving.

Olivia, you are going to hate me for so many questions. Last one, I promise. Initially I was planning to make this into a three tier cake and cut each tier horizontally in half to add the meringue. The first tier is in the oven already but now I’m thinking that I might not be able to cut it in half since you said it’s pretty fudgy. What do you think?Any recommendations??? I am so stressed out, I want this to work. Thank you so much for all your help!

No problem at all! Happy to help 🙂 I do remember this cake being very dense and fudgy, though maybe I under-baked it! Haha. It probably had something to do with the hazlenut flour though. What I would do, is cool the cakes completely and even refrigerate them so they are more firm and hopefully easier to cut? I find working with chilled cake layers a bit easier. The layers aren’t super tall though, so I think that’s more where the cutting issue might come in. If that makes sense. I would see how they are when they come out of the pans 🙂 Let me know!!

Just made this cake for my brother’s birthday. Came out gorgeous and absolutely decadent. Meringue layers really highlight the cake. I baked the batter in 2 layers then split them. Worth the effort of skinning those hazelnuts:)

Hi Zara! I don’t have the measurements in cups, but you can find some conversion websites online. I’ve used this one before and find it works well but make sure to convert each specific ingredient individually.

Hey. One more question. I’m in the process of making this. I made 2 8″ layers because I need it for 12 people. I made 2 meringue layers (that turned out AMAZING!!!) without thinking about the fact the I only have 2 cake layers. Do you think it would be OK if I put both meringue layers with some butter cream between the 2 cake layers? Almost making it a 3 layer cake? They are actually a perfect fit for the cake layers.

Hi Jackie! Yep, I think that would totally work. I would put a bit of buttercream between the layers of meringue to help even them out/stick them together. Or just place them flat side together w/o buttercream in between actually. They’re likely to stay a bit crispier that way. Let me know how the cake turns out!

Such a divine recipe. I can’t wait to make it for my partner’s 30th birthday!
We have about 30-40 people to feed and I have some 9″ cake tins. Could I double the recipe and use 2 tins or should I use 3 tins? Also, how would you adjust the cooking time if I double the recipe?

Hi Karen! I would try to use three 9″ pans. The batter is thin, but rises a lot. I usually fill my pans no more than half full. You could start by filling two pans half full and see if you have enough batter for a third? The layers might be a tiny bit thinner, but I think it should work for 3 pans. Baking time should be relatively the same since the cakes should be the same thickness. You can take a peek at 25mins to see how they’re doing, but I suspect they’d need 30-35. I hope that helps! Let me know how it turns out 🙂

I tried the recipe using 3×9″ cake tins and 2×9″ cake tins as I was getting to know my oven (I don’t bake much!). I have a conventional oven with heating element at the bottom – it doesn’t seem to do so well using multiple racks.

The layer that I baked alone rose more and seemed to cook much faster, is softer and the ones I cooked on multiple racks for longer time are a bit more hard and brown on the edges. How cooked should the cake be? I found my skewer never came out fully clean even if I left it in the oven much longer- I’m guessing it’s quite a moist cake so it’s okay! I hope I’m not serving raw cake haha

I don’t understand where the meringue is? The rosettes look like icing. You said something about putting them between the layers??
I made a cake almost identical to this a few Christmas’s ago from Gretchen’s Bakery. She topped her’s with the actual Ferrero Rocher candies with a chocolate ganache center. It came out great. I think I just gained a few pounds thinking about it.

Happy birthday! And I’m so glad you decided to make a cake for your party, at least 😊 This cake looks gorgeous! And I love Ferrero’s, so I’m definitely going to try this. I love the meringue layers, too.

First of all Happy Birthday! I agree with you – time flies. I was thinking the same today. Can’t believe it’s November. I always wonder how come the time did not fly when I was a teenager – especially in school! Haha. Your cake looks beautiful! As a kid I loved Ferrero!

Love the addition of the hazelnut flour and the meringue to this cake!! Huge fan of contrasting textures. I am not a nutella fan either. Sounds like you had just the birthday celebration you needed. Wishing you many more happy years!

another stunner! Happy Birthday! I love that you celebrated with pie. and i know what you mean about the time slipping by…this year is officially passing at lightning speed. and don’t fret about 40…it keeps getting better!